(i) Technical Field
The present invention relates to a charging member, a process cartridge, and an image forming apparatus.
(ii) Related Art
In electrophotographic image forming apparatuses, an electric charge is formed, using a charging device, on the surface of an image carrier, which is a photoconductor containing an inorganic or organic material; an electrostatic latent image is formed using a laser beam or the like modulated in accordance with an image signal; and a visualized toner image is formed by developing the electrostatic latent image with a charged toner. The toner image is electrostatically transferred onto a transfer material such as recording paper through an intermediate transfer body or in a direct manner, and then fixed on a recording material, whereby a desired reproduction image is obtained.
The charging device is a device that charges a member to be charged such as an image carrier and is broadly divided into two types of charging devices, namely, a contact charging device that charges an image carrier through direct contact with the image carrier and a non-contact charging device that charges an image carrier by generating corona discharge near the image carrier without contacting the image carrier. In recent years, contact charging devices that do not produce by-products such as ozone and nitrogen oxide through discharge have been increasingly employed.
Contact charging devices include a charging member that directly contacts the surface of an image carrier and rotates along with the motion of the surface of the image carrier to charge the image carrier.